Shelley Long

As the prim and prudish barmaid Diane Chambers on "Cheers" (NBC, 1982-1993), actress Shelley Long was instrumental to the success of the show, which narrowly avoided the network chopping block to beco...
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The Eagles stars Don Henley and Glenn Frey have filed a lawsuit over allegations fans in New York have been charged to watch bootlegged footage of the band's live shows. The Hotel California legends are suing William Shelley for allegedly showing concert videos at venues in Long Island, New York and charging admission.
In the lawsuit, filed at Brooklyn Federal Court, the stars demand he hand over his entire collection of unauthorised films, according to the New York Daily News.

A talk show host who inspired comedian Martin Short's outrageous Jiminy Glick character has died. Skip E. Lowe, who hosted a long-running weekly show for public access cable television in the U.S., died at his home in Hollywood on Monday (22Sep14). He was 85.
The former child actor's show, Skip E. Lowe Looks at Hollywood, debuted in 1978, and featured in-depth, often insightful, interviews with stars such as Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Shelley Winters, Tony Curtis, and Lynn Redgrave.
He also appeared in the films Best Foot Forward, Song of the Open Road, Black Shampoo and the Dead End Kids comedy series.

The mansion that fell apart around Tom Hanks and Shelley Long in 1986 comedy The Money Pit is up for sale. The Long Island, New York estate, which doubled as the movie couple's home, will be listed for $12.5 million (£7.8 million), according to The New York Times.
The three-storey house in Lattingtown features eight bedrooms, a six-car garage, a gym, a saltwater pool, a refrigerated wine wall and a pool house.
At the time of the film's production, the home was owned by publisher Eric Ridder. It has been restored by its current owners.

Universal Pictures via Everett Collection
Oddly enough, the body-swapping genre has been one of the most consistent in Hollywood. This somewhat campy story tradition focuses on two characters, often a parent and child but occasionally friends, swapping bodies unexpected, leading a comedy of errors to ensue. It may be hard to believe that this entire genre began with an 1800s novel titled Vice Versa. People might also not connect the countless Freaky Friday remakes with an actual children’s book by Mary Rodgers. This genre may be slowly dying as people’s interest in magic requires teenage wizards or shiny vampires. However, there have quite a number of films that have played to, played with, or played against this popular trope.
Here’s some of the most famous, and forgettable, Body Switching Movies:
Freaky Friday (1976)
Fans of Oscar winner Jodie Foster will remember her as a tomboy in this classic Disney movie. Based on the popular kid's book, Foster’s character swaps places with her housewife mother (Barbara Harris) after the two simultaneously wish to switch places (Boom! It happens just like that). This was before the days of assigning rules or logic to magic. That may be why it’s only the one Freaky Friday and not a franchise. Prepare yourself for the inevitable Thowback Thursday movie.
Like Father Like Son (1987)
Dudley Moore is best known for his role as Arthur. However, he and the now controversial Kirk Cameron starred in this body swap comedy. The two ingest a bizarre South American potion and switch bodies. This film was released in theaters but has a distinct made-for-TV feel. It’s also a lot darker and less fun than you’d expect from the genre. It’s one of the few non-Hallmark channel acting roles of Cameron… though that isn’t saying much.
Vice Versa (1988)
This film doesn’t credit the classic Victorian story but is a modern retelling of the father/son body swap novel. Fred Savage switches places with his uptight father (Judge Reinhold) after the two conveniently yell they wish to swap places while holding a Buddhist statue. Savage is great as at playing the outspoken adult despite his diminutive stature. Reinhold was also pretty childlike in his role in Beverly Hills Cop, so this isn’t much of a stretch. There are also great appearances by Swoosie Kurtz and Jane Kaczmarek.
18 Again! (1988)
George Burns stars with Charlie Schlatter in this comedy that is a little twisted. 81-year-old Burns switches places with his 18-year-old grandson, putting his life at risk, and allowing Schlatter to do a convincing old-timey accent. Don't confuse it with Zac Efron's film 17 Again... although that's its own kind of body swapping film.
Prelude to a Kiss (1992)
People may forget this Alec Baldwin/Meg Ryan romantic drama. Based on a play of the same name, Ryan goes against type as a misanthropic eccentric who falls in love with Baldwin’s lonely conservative. It channels Dharma &amp; Greg until the film makes a sharp turn. At the couple’s wedding, Ryan gets a kiss from an old man and becomes a different person. You guessed it: they switch bodies. The film then goes on an existential journey about life, love, and youth. Despite being a little depressing, it had surprisingly great performances by Baldwin and Ryan.
Freaky Friday (1995)
In this remake, Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann play the mother daughter duo that switch bodies because of matching magical necklaces. In the book and original movie, the mother is a married homemaker, but in this film Long plays a divorced workaholic.
Wish Upon a Star (1996)
Disney also released this other Freaky Friday-themed kid’s movie. A young Katherine Heigl plays a high maintenance pretty girl (sound familiar?) whose younger sister, played by Danielle Harris of the Halloween franchise, wishes on a star to see what the former's life is like. The two learn, through really high-stakes magical roleplay, to appreciate how tough one another has it. It’s a halfway decent movie but pales in comparison to the two other Disney bodyswap films.
Face/Off (1997)
This film takes a darkly, starkly real take on body swapping. FBI Agent John Travolta literally has his face taken off and attached to the head of his mortal enemy, played by Nicolas Cage. Despite the implausibility of face swapping and the fact that no one points out the vast differences in their bodies, this action movie is amazing. There’s a ton of suspense, a lot of campy fun, and some prime crazy Nic Cage.
Virtual Sexuality (1999)
This British romantic comedy really plays with the genre. A persnickety virgin goes into a machine and designs the man of her dreams. The problem, after an explosion, she wakes up in his body. Talk about loving yourself. This film is fun and focuses on the interesting dating differences between men and women, so the “magic” of body switches doesn’t get too distracting.
The Hot Chick (2002)
If Mean Girls never happened this, might be the role that Rachel McAdams would have been remembered for. She plays a Regina George type who, via a magic earring, swaps places with a thief played by Rob Schneider. Let's just say that Schneider has definitely made worse. It also features Anna Farris and Tia and Tamera Mowry.
Freaky Friday (2003)
This film established Lindsay Lohan as a teen icon. The Parent Trap was a great remake, but this new edgier, raspier Lohan is the girl who went on to rule the early 2000s. It also was Jamie Lee Curtis’ unofficial Activia audition. The actresses play the same feuding mom and daughter that swap bodies after opening up magic fortune cookies. If you haven’t seen this classic, check it out to remember when Lohan became a star.
It’s a Boy Girl Thing (2006)
This forgettable film is on Hulu if you doubt it ever existed. Kevin Zegers, best known for the recent Mortal Instruments movie, and Samaire Armstrong, who is on Resurrection, swap bodies and genders in this incarnation. This film blends the body-swap with the popular gender-bender genre. This means a ton of going into the wrong bathroom jokes.
The Change-Up (2011)
Just a few years ago, when Ryan Reynolds was everywhere, this film was a pit stop on his journey out of the limelight. He plays a wild bachelor who switches places with his married best friend (Justin Bateman). The film feels like lesser Happy Madison rather than a great comedy, despite the talented men at the head of the cast.
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Actor Woody Harrelson is quietly hoping for a Cheers reunion in a big screen version of the beloved sitcom. The Hunger Games star played dim-witted barman Woody Boyd on the show from 1985 to 1993 and he insists an official cast get together is long overdue.
He tells Britain's Daily Express newspaper, "It's something I get asked about now and again. A lot of people have fond memories of that show and it is still huge around the world.
"It might be fun to get us all back together before we all get too old. Maybe it could be Cheers: The Movie."
Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer and Kirstie Alley all co-starred with Harrelson on the show, set in a bar in Boston, Massachusetts.

Whether you know him as Opie Taylor, Richie Cunningham, or the dude that narrates Arrested Development, Ron Howard has somehow done the unthinkable and stayed relevant in Hollywood for over half a century. Oh yeah, he directs movies too! Here are five of Howard's most underrated works.
Lucasfilm
5. WillowThis fantasy tale about a magical dwarf (played by Warwick Davis) that must save a special child from an Evil Queen definitely holds a soft spot for anyone who grew up in the 80s. The film also made a star out of Davis, who later went onto lampoon his typecasting as Willow in the hilarious Ricky Gervais-produced comedy Life's Too Short.
4. Night ShiftIn one of Howard's earliest directorial efforts, Henry "The Fonz" Winkler plays an ex-Wall Street trader that finds refuge in his less stressful job at a wacky New York City morgue. Night Shift also features an early appearance by a young Kevin Costner, as well as a 10-year-old Shannen Doherty and one of TV star Shelley Long's few memorable big-screen roles.
3. BackdraftBefore NBC's (gasp!) Chicago Fire, there was Ron Howard's gritty, authentic-as-a-punch-in-the-face portrayal of a group of rough-and-tumble firefighters that are trying to chase down a serial arsonist. Side note, Backdraft is still the highest grossing-movie ever to be made about firemen. In your face, Ladder 49!
2. RansomGimme back my son! Mel Gibson utters those iconic words with such zeal in this highly-entertaining Howard film about a kidnapping gone wrong that a hysterical YouTube video was recently made parodying it. Never seen it? Check it out below.
1. Cinderella ManThis inspiring rags to riches story about the Depression-era boxer James J. Braddock, who defies all odds (as well as a broken hand) to become the heavyweight champion of the world is right up there with Raging Bull and Rocky as one of the greatest boxing movies ever made. Although nominated for three Academy Awards, however, Cinderella Man was quickly forgotten after its 2005 release. Let's hope film buffs and scholars are kinder to this overlooked Ron Howard classic.
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When cinephile Guillermo del Toro set out to make Pacific Rim, the passion that fueled his quest was born from a great fondness for the long, varied history of monster movies. One of Hollywood's staples since the earliest days of motion pictures, these flicks haven proven to be a sub-genre with more versatility than anyone might have anticipated.
Silent era monster movies had to rely on well-timed tension, grotesque visuals, and a suggestion of doom to scare audiences (some of this era's entries rank still as among the scariest films to date):
Frankenstein (1910)
The Golem (1920)
With the entry of talkies, monsters were able to develop personalities and motives. A more three-dimensional adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel derived its sense of fright by executing themes of the monstrosity of man himself:
Frankenstein (1933)
A similar theme carried forth in the famous The Wolf Man, benefactor of one of the most horrifying montages in cinema history (a man's transformation into werewolf form):
The Wolf Man (1941)
With new advances in special effects and budget, the '50s brought forth the monster movies from which Pacific Rim adopts its species. These large scale disaster flicks, with monstrous creatures chasing innocents all throughout their hometowns, are nearly synonymous with 1950s and early '60s cinema:
Godzilla (1954)
The Blob (1958)
Mothra (1961)
The 1970s saw a big shift in the sort of films Hollywood was producing in general, with a gritty and grounded sincerity overtaking the mass of the movie industry's output. Some of the finest dramas in film history came out of the decade and the same down-to-Earth, earnest sensibility that invigorated the works of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Milos Forman, and Sidney Lumet sept into the monster flicks of the era. For instance, Jaws, a film that took the large scale idea of a "monster" and turned it into something very real, thus amping up the horror all the more:
Jaws (1975)
On the same token, we have Alien, a science-fiction staple whose true horror comes not from the bloodlust of the vicious monster, but from the claustrophobia of its systematically shrinking setting. The true monster, in fact, is the vicious dread building within, and tearing apart, each of the crew members aboard the Nostromo:
Alien (1979)
But of course, when things get too serious, you need some comic relief. And that, in essence, is what the '80s were. A good plenty of the decade's horror features were campy, crude, and provocative, returning the genre to its "just for fun" sensibility:
Gremlins (1984)
After the genre itself had gone through so many transformations, the 1990s ushered in the nostalgia phase (which present day moviegoers know all too well) with a series of monster remakes. A chance to explore the untapped possibilities of old favorites? Highlight the amended role they might play in a new dawn? Or just make a few bucks with a familiar title? Eh, whatever works.
An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)
Godzilla (1998)
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
And now, we have Pacific Rim, a true love letter to the genre itself. Although the film quite definitely pays most of its gratitude to the Godzilla-style, big scale thrashings of the '50s, there is no doubt a genuine love for all things monstrous in the heart and mind of the auteur del Toro. If you have any doubt, just check out his film Pan's Labyrinth... it'll creep, and charm, the hell out of you.
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
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UPDATE: We called it! Reports are indicating that Steve Carell will, in fact, be back for The Office finale. (NBC had no comment for Hollywood.com regarding the latest news).
There's only one appropriate response to the news that Steve Carell won't be stepping back into Michael Scott's George Forman grill shoes one last time for The Office series finale on May 16 and it's this:
I mean, the unfairness and implausibility of this is beyond words. It's incalculable that Dunder Mifflin's former —and let's face, one and only true — boss won't make a one last appearance as the series wraps up. During a conference call on Wednesday, The Office executive producer Greg Daniels once again shot down remaining hope when he told reporters that, "I think Steve felt, and I agree, that the 'Goodbye, Michael' episode was his goodbye and he didn't want to overshadow the ending that all the other characters deserved."
Yes, "Goodbye, Michael" was an excellent episode (maybe the last truly great one of the series, considering The Office never regained its footing after Carell exited), but I don't for one second believe that Michael Scott wouldn't want to see these people again. Though he left without really saying goodbye to his employees because it was just too damn hard for him, I can't imagine he's not a blissfully happy person with Holly who wouldn't want to visit his friends back in Scranton. And even Daniels' quote has a key phrase: "the other characters" and their endings. But Michael Scott is a part of all those other characters' journeys.
Here's the other thing: the writers wouldn't even need Michael to come back to Dunder Mifflin office. Why not have Jim or Pam call him to catch up about their respective families (I like to imagine that Michael and Holly have created offspring by now) or, to truly go for laughs, have Toby email him about an overlooked HR-related issue? I refuse to believe that a two-minute cameo would be too much for Carell. Michael Scott was the real heart of The Office and not having him be part of the show's end would make about as much as sense as the plot of Threat Level: Midnight.
Carell owes it to the show and the show owes it to its faithful viewers. It doesn't even matter how they do bring him back, just that they do it. A returning star's presence makes a huge impact on a series finale: imagine the Cheers finale without Shelley Long or Friday Night Lights without Scott Porter? Hell, even George Clooney returned to ER down the line. (Not the finale, but still! He came back to the show that propelled him to super stardom!)
But, hey, not all hope is lost, despite Daniels' statement. Just the other day David Letterman grilled former Office star and scribe Mindy Kaling (who will be on the series finale, as well as B.J. Novak, among others) on The Late Show about whether or not Carell would be back on, and she was slightly less convincing that he won't be. "I am not certain," she hesitantly answered Letterman when asked about whether or not he'd be there. Kaling then claimed she was too drunk at the final taping to notice who was there and that she'd signed a strict confidentiality agreement with NBC. So, there you have it.
Simply put, I just don't want to imagine a world where we don't see Michael Scott one last time. It's too hard.
That's what she said.
Additional reporting by Michael Arbeiter.
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So you've got a new love brewing... and this might be, dare you say, the one. They're sweet, thoughtful, they totally get you. Your personalities mesh well, your interests align, your parents approve. There's only hurdle you haven't yet overcome: your friends. Those horribly judgmental, scathingly abrasive, disconcertingly alienating monsters. The very same ones you love dearly and have spent every waking minute with since your mid teens. You know that no matter how perfect your latest romantic partner might be, the ganglion of derision that you call your social circle will undoubtedly disapprove.
But is that for certain? Is there any chance that you an successfully meld both fields of your life to result in a dynamic smorgasbord of self-efficacy? Or will something always be... off?
Tuesday night's Happy Endings braved the question when Penny (Casey Wilson) and her Season 3 boyfriend Pete (Nick Zano) got engaged. The turn of events came as a surprise to fans aplenty, largely because Happy Endings isn't ordinarily too heavy on the overarching plot. More than this, the show has thrived on its main characters existing as a self-contained, impermeable mass of codependency and affectionate self-destruction. Where might the newbie, nice guy Pete, fit in with this lifelong band of pals?
And along with the question as an in-universe quandary do we wonder how Zano might fit in on the show. It's true, Zano's career is not yet too busy for him to make weekly supporting player appearances on Happy Endings. But very rarely do cast members of this nature on shows like Happy Endings advance to permanence.
Thinking back to Happy Endings' spiritual predecessor Friends, we recall Mike: a Paul Rudd of middling fame who was introduced in the penultimate season as a love interest for Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow). Rudd would maintain a presence throughout the run of the series, appearing right up until Friends' finale, but never truly evolved to a platform of equal stature among the central gang. In fact, the occasional joke surrounding Mike was that he was largely an outsider looking in at the Central Perk madness. One episode even invested an entire storyline in Ross' (David Schwimmer) inability to find anything to talk about with Mike.
Predating Friends in this endeavor, and somewhat more successfully, was Cheers. Over the course of its 12-year run, the Boston-set sitcom introduced not one but two characters as significant others, eventually granting each opening titles billing. Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) was introduced in the Season 3 premiere of Cheers as a love interest for leading lady Diane (Shelley Long). Although initially penned as a temporary character, the writers and fans loved Frasier enough to keep him around for 8 years (not to mention an 11-season spin-off). And from Frasier came Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth), his fellow psychiatrist and love interest introduced in Cheers' fourth season in a similar circumstance. Although only planned as a one-off character, Lilith returned in Season 5, and stuck around through the final year (marrying, divorcing, and remarrying Frasier during her tour on the series).
Many a series has made it happen: Will &amp; Grace kept both Bobby Cannavale and Harry Connick, Jr. around; 30 Rock introduced James Marsden as a boyfriend for Tina Fey's Liz Lemon last season — now, with the series finale set for this Thursday, the two are happily married and new parents to a pair of adopted nincompoops.
But so many a series, those mentioned included, have brought in romantic guest stars just to ship them off into oblivion again when the time comes. So what will be the case with Happy Endings and Zano? If the ABC series is planning to keep him around, how the hell is that going to work?
As was the case with Rudd on Friends, there is room for comedy in the "odd man out" phenomenon. As the only sane one in this bunch of kooks, Zano can supply a new brand of deadpan humor in reaction to the psychologically alarming, ethically barren antics of Penny and company. Of course, Rudd also exhibited another phenomenon: the endless supply of errands. Oftentimes, Mike was nowhere to be found while Phoebe was hanging around with her West Village harem. He'd be off at work or running an errand or starring in Anchorman. Perhaps Happy Endings will go the same route with Zano, bringing him around for pertinent plots but shafting him to the background for scenes consisting only of the traditional sextet.
And of course, there is always the chance that Zano will go the way of so many sitcom beaus... perhaps even leaving Penny at the altar (or vice versa), a la the Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) and Dave (Zachary Knighton) debacle that sparked the whole series.
More than any other sitcom does Happy Endings have its comedy down pat. It understands what makes itself funny and devotes itself to that with vigor. As such, no matter what path the show takes with Zano, we can look forward to terrific comedy. As far as real life goes, though... keep your significant others far away from your friends. It never works.
[Photo Credit: ABC]
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It's safe to say that many adults watch Christmas movies for nostalgia's sake. Since the holiday season is typically never as magical as it was when we were children, we gravitate toward the movies that used to make us feel warm, safe, and happy in our youth. (A Christmas Story, It's A Wonderful Life, etc.) We watch the same ones year after year — due to some eggnog-fueled tradition, the desire to pass down our own special childhood memories to our children, or as a legitimate quest to experience those feelings again. But for many Christmas enthusiasts, the same old repeats aren't good enough — and that's where, for roughly 40 years, Lifetime has come in. And with 10 star-studded original films on the roster for 2012, they're showing no signs of stopping.
"Holidays are a big deal for our viewers," says the SVP of Original Lifetime Movies, Tanya Lopez. "[Because] the themes are sort of this wish fulfillment... the movies that seem to do really well for us are movies that end in a couple's love story. [Movies] that have romance in them, really seem to rate."
That's why Lifetime produces material like Finding Mrs. Claus and The Merry In-Laws — two stories that combine the mythology of Christmas with a classic Lifetime romance. "People put aside other issues in their lives during this time — they just want to feel good," says Bruce Johnson, an executive producer on Finding Mrs. Claus. "They want to feel like these fantasies of romance could happen to them — that something magical could be happening during the holidays. These types of movies play year after year for a reason."
Indeed, they do — the holiday season is one of the biggest highlights of the year for the folks at Lifetime. With a core female demographic and countless dedicated viewers, the network knows it has to deliver the goods, while somehow avoiding total repetition. It's a process. "Actually, it is [a team of elves]," Lopez says with a laugh, when asked how so many movies get made each year. "They look at the movies and themes that are out there — we have a huge library of Christmas movies, so we look at which titles seem to be perennial. Then what we do is we look at how we supplement — what is it that we don't seem to have in our library? We do some strategic thinking about these movies. Last year, this all happened in, say, February or March."
Lopez acknowledges that the material in these films can often be less-than-fresh, and that avoiding duplication is also a huge part of the process. "We try not to duplicate," she says. "It's hard. This year we were so strategic about [planning] — we really took some time. I think if you look closer you'll see some that some [movies] sort of fall into the grey area."
Like, for example, The March Sisters at Christmas — a modern retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, that finds all four March sisters searching for love. According to Lopez, the film wasn't even supposed to be a Christmas tale. "There are some movies that we can turn into Christmas movies," she says. "[The March Sisters at Christmas] was just about the sisters, and in a rewrite, we turned it towards Christmas."
But this infamous repetition (and, come on, cheesiness) doesn't keep the talent away — this year alone, Lifetime snagged Mira Sorvino, Will Sasso (The Three Stooges), Ralph Macchio, Shelley Long, Harry Hamlin, David Hasselhoff, and more — basically, all actors who definitely have other things to do (err, except for maybe Hasselhoff). "Mira really created this character, Mrs. Claus," says Johnson, who produced Sorvino in Finding Mrs. Claus. "She had a real clear vision when we began the conversation with her of who the character would be. She pitched some revisions to the script, and an expansion of that character in terms of who she was and how she would be perceived. Mira has young children, and I think she even said that she just wanted to do a movie that she could show her kids, and that they would have fun and watch it year after year, because that's their mom — Mrs. Claus." Lopez agrees. "I think that [for] Ralph Macchio, or Lea Thompson — [doing a Lifetime movie] is not necessarily stretching their acting chops," she says. "It's just [about] having that nice film they've done in their library."
George Wendt (Cheers) — who plays Santa alongside Long in The Merry In-Laws — confirmed that the decision to star in the film wasn't exactly a brain-buster, even though he has played Santa Claus before. "It's usually a lot of fun, and usually very sweet," Wendt says of the filming experience. "They usually shoot [the films] in a nice, cold climate so there's lots of snow in the background, so it gets you out of town. That's about it. It's a nice, beloved character."
And that's enough to lure in the stars (not to mention the viewers) — Lifetime's holiday fare is good for the kids, fun for the grown-ups, and it makes viewers happy. But to make the rare, special film that shows up on the Lifetime calendar year after year (like 2003's Comfort and Joy, and 2005's Recipe For a Perfect Christmas) Johnson swears that there is actually a formula. "The movies that work the best have heart," Johnson says. "Rule number one, if you're dealing with the mythology that is around Christmas, you have to take the mythology seriously. When that happens, then the rest of the magic can happen. The second thing, because we are in that mythological realm, is you truly have to suspend disbelief. [Enjoying the movie] has to do with the relationships — everyone wants to have that perfect relationship with somebody else, somebody special. This kind of movie reinforces that you can have that. These types of movies, if they reinforce [that you can find love] — people will enjoy viewing it."
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find my own perfect "Mr. Claus!"
Follow Shaunna on Twitter @HWShaunna
[PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Araquel/Lifetime]
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Reprised the role of Diane Chambers on the last episode of the sitcom "Cheers"

Attempted a dramatic role in the ABC TV-movie "Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase"

Returned to series TV as star of the sitcom "Kelly Kelly" (The WB)

Joined the Second City troupe

Made feature film debut in "A Small Circle of Friends"

Dropped out of college to pursue acting career

Played Carol Brady in the feature film version of "The Brady Bunch"

Summary

As the prim and prudish barmaid Diane Chambers on "Cheers" (NBC, 1982-1993), actress Shelley Long was instrumental to the success of the show, which narrowly avoided the network chopping block to become one of television's most beloved sitcoms of all time. That success was due in large part to Long's Diane, whose on-again, off-again mismatched romance with Sam Malone (Ted Danson) fueled audience interest in the show for years. During her five seasons on "Cheers," Long adventured outside the show to stake her claim in features with hits like "Irreconcilable Differences" (1984), "The Money Pit" (1986) and "Outrageous Fortune" (1987). Buoyed by the critical and commercial success garnered from those films, Long surprised both castmates and fans when she announced her departure from "Cheers," a move that was rumored to have caused consternation among her co-stars. Unfortunately, her decision to leave the show at the height of its power led her to making ill-advised films like "Troop Beverly Hills" (1989), "Don't Tell Her It's Me" (1990) and "Frozen Assets" (1992). With her popularity hitting all-time lows, Long managed to resuscitate her career as the matriarch in "The Brady Bunch Movie" (1995) and "A Very Brady Sequel" (1996). But a set of personal setbacks - divorce and an alleged suicide attempt - derailed her comeback while generating unwanted headlines. Whatever her condition, fans wished Long well during her recovery as she remained a popular figure in the history of television sitcoms.

Name

Role

Comments

Bruce Tyson

Husband

married c. 1981; divorced in 2004

Juliana Tyson

Daughter

born c. 1985

Education

Name

Northwestern University

Notes

Long received a 1996 Emmy nomination for a guest appearance on "Frasier" in which she reprised the character of Diane Chambers.